Thermq-chemical electric battery



(No Model.)

A. PATTERSON.

THERMO CHEMICAL ELECTRIC BATTERY.

Patented Aug. 1, 1882.

FSSEE.

H wu

Nrrno STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANDREW PATTERSON, OF IDLEWOOD, PENNSYLVANIA.

TH E RMO-CHEM ICAL ELECTRIC BATTERY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 262,110, dated August'l, 1882. Application filed Mav 6. 1832. (No model.)

To all whom. it may concern Be it known that 1, ANDREW PATTERSON, a citizen of the United States,,residing at Idlewood, in Allegheny county, State of Pennsylvania, have invented ordiscovered a certain new and useful improvement in developing electric force by the joint action of heat and chemical: affinity, which I term a Thermo- Uhemical Electric Battery; and Ihereby declare that the following is such a'full, clear, and exact description of my invention or discovery as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and. use the same.

The nature of my invention consists in developing an electric current by the joint action of heat and chemical afiiuit y on a mass of metal in the relation of the positive element in an electric cell and another mass of the some metal in the relation of the negative element with a mass of the same metal in chemical combination with an electro negative interposed between said positive and negative'elements of the cell. Y

The following description and illustration of my invention will sufficiently explain the mode of making and using it, not only with the 'materials described, but with other materials havin 9; similar chemical and electrical relations to each other.

Theaccoinpan'y ing drawing reprcsentsa vertical section of a single cell of my improved battery.

A and B are compact masscslnot necessarily solid, and preferably conimiuutcd, so as'to atiord large surface with in terspaces within small compass) of metallic copper.

G is a mass of sulphuret of copper.

Isl is an envelope of clay or other refractory insulating materiahinclosing the active parts and keeping them in place.

(1 and (1 are conducting-wires, which may be joined at their ends to complete the circuit of the sin gle cell, or they may be alternately joined with other elements, A and B,in other-cells, as is the case with the usualconstruction of chemical or thermo batteries.

Thus constructed, my improved cell or batiery is set in action by exposing either end of it to a temperature sufficient to excite in the cell athermo-electric current. The copper in the heated end is then, as I understand the relations, electrically positive as to the copper in the coolercnd, and also as to the interposed mass of sulphuret,and the copper in the cooler end is electrically negative to thesnlphuret of 5 copper of the compound is deposited against the cooler copper in a manner analogous to that in which the deposition takes place in an ordinary decomposition-cel l, or in a zinc-and-copper cell excited by a salt of copper in solution.

The chemical action between the heated copper and the sulphur of the sulphuret gives rise to an electric current supplemental to the thermo electric current, and the cell or battery may he thus continued in action until a considerable quantity of copper has been in effect transferred from one plate to the other. It, then, the heat be withdrawn from the alreadyheated end and applied to the opposite end of the cell, the copper in that end becomes positive, and the same thermo and chemically-ex cited currents are setin action, but in a reverse direction, andthe transfer of copper is also reversed. This alternation of the application of heat and the direction of the electric current may be continued indefinitely, the currcntibein g available for any purpose to which its quantity or tension makes it applicable.

It is proper to say that I do not confine myself to the precise form of cell or other parts shown; but my invention inheres in the functional relations of the parts, and, preserving these relations, the parts may be given any convenient form or construction. Nor do I confine myself to the use of copper and copper Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In a thermochemical electric cell such as I 5 have described, the combinatiom in the rela- -tion of positive and negative elements, of substances capable of having their electrical relations reversed by the reversal ofitheirrelative" temperatures, with an interposed mass ofacom- I pound substancecapable of decomposition and 10 reeompositiou by the joint action of heat and an electric current, as and for the purpose specifled.

ANDREW PATTERSON.

Witnesses:

Gso. N. Momao, EDWARD JAY ALLEN. 

